McCullin, Donald. PHOTO Presente Les Grands Maitres de la Photo 3: McCullin.

Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, 1983. Text by Mark Haworth-Booth in French. [Born in 1935, Donald McCullin, British photojournalist, is renowned for his war photography and images of urban unrest.] 

Sir Donald McCullin (born 1935) is an acclaimed British photojournalist renowned for his stark, empathetic imagery capturing conflict, human suffering, and social inequality. Raised in working-class North London, he began his career in 1959 photographing local street gangs before establishing himself as one of the preeminent war photographers of the late 20th century. During an influential nearly two-decade tenure at The Sunday Times, McCullin braved front lines across the globe to document harrowing crisis zones, including the Vietnam War, the Cyprus conflict, the Biafran famine, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the Lebanese Civil War. Alongside his battlefield journalism, he used his high-contrast, black-and-white style to shine a light on domestic poverty and deindustrialization in post-war Britain. Knighted in 2017 for his services to photography, McCullin has turned in his later years toward reflective landscapes and still life, building an enduring legacy anchored in deep human compassion and uncompromising historical documentation.

PHOTO Présente Les Grands Maîtres de la Photo N°3: McCullin is a specialized photographic monograph dedicated to the legendary British photojournalist Don McCullin. Part of an influential multi-volume series issued by the creators of PHOTO magazine, this French-language volume serves as a comprehensive retrospective showcasing McCullin’s raw, unflinching impact on 20th-century documentary photography.

Key Focus Areas

• The Historical Text: The volume features a biographical and critical introduction written by Mark Haworth-Booth, the esteemed photography curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Translated into French, the text contextually frames McCullin’s career, tracking his path from a working-class youth in London to one of the world's most vital war correspondents.

• The Chronology of Conflict: The core of the book compiles numerous high-quality reproductions of McCullin's most famous, devastating imagery. The visual layout documents his historic assignments across global frontlines, spanning the Vietnam War (including the Battle of Huế), the civil war in Cyprus, the famine in Biafra, and the thick of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

• The Dark Aesthetic: The portfolio emphasizes McCullin's signature printing and shooting style, which is characterized by heavy, dramatic contrast, deep shadows, and an overall somber visual tone. The presentation highlights his uncanny ability to capture human trauma, quiet grief, and battlefield resilience without resorting to cheap sensationalism.

• Urban and Social Realism: Beyond actual military combat, the monograph looks at McCullin’s documentation of domestic struggle. It highlights his stark, early portraits of London gangs, urban poverty, and economic decline in the industrial north of England, demonstrating that his eye for societal collapse and human suffering was just as sharp at home as it was abroad.

Copies available:

• Very good in wraps with a few light spots inside covers and on facing pages, where they were formerly stuck together. From the library of the noted documentary photographer Sol Libsohn, but unmarked. 
• Fine in wraps.